The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has signaled that he will negotiate with Kurdish rebels after months of deadly violence from Kurdish rebels in response to Turkish policies.

It is the fear of further escalation of this violence that has led Erdoğan to consider talks. In the past Turkey has been unwilling to negotiate with rebels, despite calls from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party.

Hugh Pope, director of International Crisis Group’s project in Turkey and Cyprus has spoken to Euronews highlighting how the changes since 2009 affect the lives of Kurdish people:

Last year there was very severe degrading of the situation to a point where more than 700 people were killed in the fighting, including more than 200 soldiers, more than 400 PKK members and nearly 80 civilians. These are the worst casualty figures since the capture of PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan and I think it is a watershed moment for Turkey, I think, because many things are changing in the region and Turkey needs a new policy direction. I think currently the way that fighting escalation needs a reconsideration a real of policy.

Talks with Kurdish rebels will come as a surprise to many sociologists who have argued that successive Turkish governments have always believed that through time Kurds would assimilate and become Turks.

Ismail Beşikçi in an interview with Rudaw is quoted to have said the following:

The Turkish state does not have any particular view on solving the issue of the Kurds. Therefore, it delays dealing with the problem, hoping that it will be solved over time. That is because the Turkish state believes that as time passes, the Kurds will assimilate. A large number of Kurds live in the west of Turkey. The state believes that after two to three generations, they will assimilate and become Turks. I believe this is the plan of the state.

The Turkish government is responsible for restricting the negotiation process in the Oslo talks, a senior member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Zübeyir Aydar, who was in attendance for the negotiations between Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and PKK, has said, adding that the PKK would like to see negotiations to begin again.

On Twitter the responses were different; some have questioned Erdogan's previous statements on the successfulness of military operations against Kurdish rebels.

Twitter attracts a diverse range of opinions on the subject of Kurdish rebels and many Kurds have tweeted about the possible negotiations. Some are sceptical, others have pointed out that the talks are simply a means of watering down the current escalation of violence which depicts Turkey in a very bad light.

For instance a Kurd living in Turkey, Necirvan, tweeted that negotiations with Kurdish people are a waste of time, and will lead to disappointment. This view was echoed by Yezdan who said Kurds should not be naive about this negotiation attempt.

Idrees Mohammd pointed out that domestic pressure has increased, which has led to Erdogan signalling the way to more talks. But according to Baxtiyar, who is a politics and international relations student, the initiation towards negotiations is due to the “weakness of Turkish forces in confronting PKK fighters”.

There is no doubt that Kurdish rebels are open to negotiations, because they have lost a significant number of people due to Turkish forces shelling the mountains where most of them are situated. Hevallo, a pro-Kurdish activist tweeted that the Kurdish rebels are calling for “Oslo talks to restart”.

2 comments

Hevallo

This story has developed in the last 12 hours. A curious report appeared in papers, many Kurds believe is linked to AKP, Taraf and Zaman, that Abdullah Ocalan’s brother, Mehmet had visited Abdullah Ocalan in Imrali prison, the Hurriyet paper for some reason unknown puts the date as last Friday the 21st Sept. Mehmet is quoted by these papers as saying his brother, Abdullah Ocalan does not agree with the military attacks by PKK and not another soldier or gerila should die! There is enormous scepticism though from the Kurdish side, as it is being seen as a desperate ploy by the government and an attempt to divide the Kurdish movement and manipulate the situation by using Ocalan. What the Kurdish side want is to see confidence building measures such as releasing Ocalan’s lawyers from prison so they can represent him and indeed to release Ocalan himself so he is able to meet with the Kurdish freedom struggle’s leadership to discuss political and peacefull negotiations. The government also need to declare an bi lateral ceasefire inviting the PKK to silence the guns also so talks can begin.

Without this, these news reports are nothing more than that empty rhetorical propaganda aimed at sowing confusion and discord within the supporters of the Kurdish cause.